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the American Dream

why does all American literature which we're asked to study in British classrooms revolve around the American Dream and its failings as an ethos except for ruthless capitalists... we've studied "Of Mice and Men", "The Great Gatsby", and "Death of a Salesman".

Is the best American literature about the fundamental flaws of the dreams, with all other American literature being toothless, meaningless shite with a lesser catharsis, or is British education encouraging us to be communists? If it's the former, can anyone recommend some literature praising America's culture and economic model, just so I can know it's out there?

hicky i need to buy a new book or two when i finish the one im reading probably later this week and dont really have an inclination as to what to get. name me a couple good novels i probably havent read.

More and more I'm under the impression that the British government goes around figuring out what people like the least, form several bureaucracies to nationalize it, and then charge people for the displeasure. Examples include putting boots on cars, speed cameras, bus lanes, and work zone speed limits with special average-speed cameras working round the clock even when workers aren't present and even when they are they're probably just standing around or listening to a speech about health and safety.

That said I found The Pursuit of Happyness to be a good film about the American dream, but I don't know of a book about such off the top of my head.

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects." - Time Enough For Love, by Robert Heinlein

The Home Office's solution to combatting problems is to make about 50000 databases on subjects, and then lose the CDs with these databases on them on trains.

God, you're asking me to recommend books, not books about anything specific? I recommend "Naked Lunch" by William Burroughs, "Infinite Jest" by David Foster Wallace, and "Finnegan's Wake" by James Joyce. I suppose I should give reasons, I guess I could swing by and do that later

Actually Rayne makes a good point... all the Brubaker Cap stuff is really excellent, touches on several aspects of America and expounds upon the good and the bad. A lot of times it's really more of a spy thriller than a conventional "comic book"